Palm Sunday

Sing Hosanna! Hosanna! to the Lord.

Palm Sunday commemorates the journey of Jesus into Jerusalem before the Crucifixion.

Parishioners were given crosses fashioned from palm leaves as we entered the Sanctuary decorated with pots of palm trees. I wish my cross wouldn't get all dried up and brittle as it would make such a meaningful bookmark.

Good Friday services will be held from 12.30 to 3pm and when we're coming out of church I'll be anticipating rainstorms. I don't remember a year when it hasn't poured with 'tears from heaven' at the crucifixion hour. I wonder if this happens all over the world?

Easter morning sunrise service at 6.30 am is usually held at the football field as we worship with parishioners from sister churches. There is translation of Bible readings and sermons from English into Mandarin and Tamil. Last year we had Korean as well.

A Very Blessed Easter!

KAL meet-up and my lonely cast-on

My first meet-up with knitters from the forum and it was fun! Pattern books came out of bulging bags packed with yarn, WIPs, and Trinity yarn for our KAL . I'm not sure what the cafe management thought of us, we occupied 3 tables and sat from 12.30 to 4 pm, oblivious to everything else except our knitting chat.


Here's the bunch of us, Lyn took the group photo so here she is wearing one of her colourful creations.









It didn't matter that most were not KALing, we all brought something to knit and Doreen wore her Trinity Flamenco corset. Mona and Lyn casted on officially but I had to postpone. What a disappointment, but I did do something with the yarn! I helped frog Mona's lilac piece (on the coffee table) while she casted-on. The general opinion is that Cozy would be too lightweight if knitted with Trinity and after Jackie showed her cotton DK Cozy, I decided to look for another pattern.

So here it is, my pattern and WIP. I'm not sure if there's enough yarn for the long sleeves, anyway, will worry about that later.

Sierra :

Knit 'n Style

Issue 139

Oct 2005

My version of the Sierra (without the Diamonds) is adapted for working in the round and I'm happy with how the double moss stitch band turned out.

KAL in waiting

The casting-on ceremony for our Jaeger Trinity KAL is on 1 st April, 12.30pm, Starbucks, Bangsar Village, KL. Mona has requested that we bring our yarns and come ready for lunch too.





Here's my 'lazy' swatching of some rows of stockinette and Cozy 's lace pattern.

The KAL bag I bought in Bangkok last year.







Finally, with help from emma I figured out how to get the sleeve right. The 'centre' is moved from the red marker to the knit stitch marked yellow in order to have a V effect for the increases. Easy, when you have expert advice.

Undecided

It's a week to the Jaeger Trinity KAL flag-off and I'm still in two minds. I love the Hibiscus silky cotton mix yarn and colour but cannot decide on what I want to do with it. The girls over at the forum knitted beautiful corsets and lace tops earlier and I'm so tempted to try but I really don't think they'd look good on my figure though.

My stockinette swatch is not encouraging, a loose top might drape too much after washing. I've been advised against cables with Trinity so perhaps I might go for this shrug or a lace shawl.



Australian Women's Weekly
Sept 2005

Cozy:knitty.com

The 2 WIPs I'm working furiously to finish are not getting anywhere.

Ed's scarf is not progressing because I just can't knit more than 10 mins without feeling stabbed by the 10mm Denise needles. My left index is raw after every attempt and no amount of hand cream helps. I've found an old pair of Phildar straights of the same size so will change over this evening. It's going to be a lot more cumbersome working with such long needles but less painful.

The body of JS' jumper was a breeze but the sleeves are going to be another challenge. I discovered that increasing in between a 1knit 3knit/purl broken garter rib is not as easy as stated in the pattern - "work inc in pattern", that's it! I've ripped the sleeve back down to the cuff 4 times and am still trying to find a way to line up my knit rows perfectly. Well, I've given myself a deadline, I'm going to give it a final try this evening and if still not satisfied, will start again in the flat. I suspect the untidy increases between the knit bars will still be visible but hopefully may look better knitted in the flat and less obvious after seaming.

It takes just as much energy to solve knitting or IT project problems......

Out of the frog pond...

It's out of the frog pond! I'm so proud, my first 'no pattern' short sleeves top is ready and here it is.

EPS works and the basic principles a good guide but I'm knitting to fit me - so I decided to rip, recalculate and knitted broader sleeves. The earlier ones were a tad tight although my percentages were correct. Perhaps my arms are not 'normal' size and anyway I do like more ease and added 16 sts (almost 3" all round) which I decreased gradually towards the raglan shoulders. I kept the recomended 16 sts for the underarm seam although many similar patterns recommend less (about 2").

I kinda like it that way though and shall continue to do the same for other projects.
Hubby is curious why I needed a calculator and had to work percentages when it's just knitting and what if I can't do math?

I'm planning to knit up a collection of these tops in various colours and variations, perhaps add some lace to make them more interesting. I'll stick to wool blends since they keep shape better and the office is a freezer anyway!

I've been testing out the 'multiplier factor' formula recommended by a posting in this forum live journal It helps convert patterns using recommended yarn gauge to another of your choice.
for example:

the stitch multiplier

4 ply - 26 sts to 10 cm
DK - 22 sts to 10 cm

multiplier = 22/26 or 26/22 depending on whether it's 4 ply to DK or vice versa.
The row multiplier is calculated in a similar way.
The multiplier is applied to recalculate number of stitches and rows required for the alternative yarn. I shall have to use it if I am unable to find a DK pattern that I would like to knit for the Jaeger Trinity KAL organised by Mona and discussed here

The KAL starts April 1st and I shall go back to my WIPs before we commence!

A productive weekend

The entire weekend was dedicated to scanning photographs and creating another blog for my old and current FOs. new blog

The nostalgic memories each picture brought back were mostly good and for an entire evening I was reminiscing about college, university, campus life, time spent with friends like Susan, courting days, cold winters, patterns from old magazines and the many many hours alone in my room knitting away.

A tinge of regret is felt when I realised there is not a single garment from those days left with me now. Most were donated to Oxfam to reduce luggage during the final packing trip home and except for the Aran cardigan that Estherie says she still treasures, there's nothing except memories and faded photographs.

Last week, two of YL's friends took up on my offer of knitting lessons and turned up equipped with "sticks" belonging to grandmas and grand aunts. Chris had a ball of recycled wool. Ed plans to knit himself a scarf before leaving for studies in Canada and Chris wants to knit her friend in US one too.

They started with 'knit' for an evening and 'purl' the next day. Surprisingly, Ed is quicker on the uptake and has a natural 'feel' for knitting. He left with several rows of k2P2 and I'll have to take them to a LYS for some 'proper' wool to start on their projects.

These are the 3 books that I refer to constantly and without a doubt, Knitting without Tears is my favourite.

The Knitting Stitch library is a hard cover bargain I picked up for less than US$ 8 in Penang.

Designs haven't changed much through the years, especially cotton Ts. The colours are just as vibrant.

For an idea of the age of this magazine page, note the pictures of Fergie and Prince Andrew's wedding on the left.

Two of the books I bought in Sydney last year. The FOs from these can be seen here

Still learning

I guess I'm no different from knitters who can't wait to start off a new project so last weekend, the baby blanket and jumper bacame WIP-in-waiting since I must have a new black top for my office wardrobe.

A batch of 5 ply black crepe wool was just waiting in the stash bag and I had wanted to try out the EPS (Elizabeth Percentage System) going without a pattern. Knitted up a swatch, got 6 sts to 1" and took measurements from a 'seen better days' favourite top that it is replacing.

I should have 66sts (33% of total body sts) for my 11" sleeve all round, but after leaving 17 sts (25% of sleeve sts) on the thread for the underarm seam, it does look like it'll be tight all the way up the shoulder. Maybe I need 66 + 17 to keep the overall width?

The body fits well, if there's any frogging it'll be just the top part and sleeves! The small stitches and colour black is rather stressful for the eyes so picking up is not going to be fun.

My plastic dpns are definitely not as good as the (Aero) old faithfuls. I can't seem to get them into stitches as fast as the metal ones. They feel sort of fiddlely somehow. Oh dear, and I've just bought 4 sets of various sizes. I've got visions of socks popping up for some time....

Rambling on

I've been putting off casting on the next jumper for JS since I wasn't too keen on the wool when the order arrived. Camel turned out to be rather muddy and disappointing. But, when I showed swatches to YL and cousins, they liked the shade, maybe it's just me?

To jazz up the 'boring' colour, I decided on this textured broken garter stitch pattern from Family Circle (easy knitting fall 2005). To knit in the round I've reduced 2 stitches and will figure collar adjustments when I get to it! Broken garter is easy but is making me neurotic about checking every few rows.

Wool for ED's scarf. Alas, YF cell group meetings in the house will be a little quieter when he leaves for Canada in May.

Knitting Around (Elizabeth Zimmermann) arrived and although I enjoyed it, Knitting Without Tears is still my favourite. All chapters include a running biographical narration and it's distracting moving from knitting to family history and then onto knitting again. Otherwise, it's another gem of knitting advice, tips and techniques. She's made text easier to comprehend than some pictorial guides!

Some FOs and a WIP

Here is my version of badpenny. Ribbed sleeves have been replaced with 6 rows of garter stitch and the collar reduced by 20% of stitches recommended. YL definitely has to fill-up at the collarbone area!


Yarn: Sirdar Acrylic - recyled from a top knitted years ago and washed several times.

The yarn is probably bought some 15 yrs ago. Still looks brand new though.







The Harry Porter scarf is for YS and hopefully he'll use it for the coming winter and next movie in Melbourne. It's about 5 ft in length and me being such a yarn snob would have preferred a higher wool content but then he'd have to remember not to throw it into the Dryer....so practicality triumphs in the end.


Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Worsted, 80% acrylic & 20% wool.





This is another scarf finished over the Chinese New Year gifted to YL's Youth Fellowship friend.


Yarn: 100% bouncle wool of Japanese Origin




There's going to be a new baby in the clan, MIL's first great-grand child is expected in August. I decided on a baby blanket I saw here . It's about 40% done and I'm liking the pattern so much that I might make this a 'family baby blanket'. New babies get this from auntie by default??



Yarn: 100% wool of Japanese origin.


I used 6.5 mm needles instead of the 5 mm recommended to get a lighter and 'airy' blanket.

Knitting Without Tears arrived!

It's amazing the amount of information Elizabeth Zimmermann managed to get into the book and although mostly text, I've read it over and over and over.....each time discovering something new. I would recommend it to all serious knitters.

Amazom.com promised 'Knitting Around', also by EZ, is on the way and I might put in an order for 'Knitting from the top' (Barbara Walker) later.Since finishing JS's jumper- knitted on the round, I've completed a teeny weeny T-shirt this for YL and this time knitted from the top.

I've fallen in love with both techniques, thus the books!
I'm definitely going to attempt to convert 'flats' to 'rounds' as much as possible from now on.

No more, really, no more variegated scarves! The Griffinddor scarf for JS took hours of tail weaving. They are better knitted in double layers with joins left inside!.

At last! I've found a Knitting Forum of mostly Malaysians and Singaporeans - Forum
It was getting too lonely on my own. My lunch group at work thinks I'm strange - choosing to knit, "like an old lady on a rocking chair" (quote).

My kids are beginning to appreciate mum's FOs - I hope! JS says my woollie jumpers keep him warmer than his other stuff and YL thinks that the latest T-shirt is 'hip' since it shows some waist line. Anything longer will make her look 'auntie' it seems. There's a standing order from a little cousin who likes YL's roll brim woollie hat when she wore it to HK Disney. There'll be another on the needles soon.

The one person who truly understands my craze is hubby. Well, I was already knitting when we met in college many many moons ago.

(edited)